Implementation of “Colouristic Contrast with Pablo Picasso” (SOI-MT-359)
Author: Brendan Buttigieg, Art Teacher
School/Organization: St Paul’s Bay Primary School, Malta
I usually initiate an Art lesson by giving some information about a specific related artist from the history of Art and expose the students to his or her artworks, and the learning scenario that I selected does the same. I chose the learning scenario: ‘Colouristic Contrast with Pablo Picasso’ to be implemented with my students as from my experience as an Art teacher, I feel that they always find it hard to draw a realistic portrait, thus exposing them to the cubist portrait works by Pablo Picasso was a very good idea. This helped them to be more at ease and be free to use their creativity and break the general rules of the basic head proportions. The students observed very well several works of Art of this artist from Europeana and the main basic elements of Art which he used to compose his artworks namely line, shape, colour, pattern, and space. The students talked about the basic elements that they observed in the art works in English and in Maltese and they executed their own cubist portrait inspired from the works of Pablo Picasso. Students expressed themselves creatively by using watercolours and presented their final works to each other.
The Context of the Implementation of this Learning Scenario
I am an Art teacher in a multicultural state Primary school in Malta and I teach students between the ages of 5-11 years, in our school Art room. I implemented this learning scenario with students in the age range of 8 and 9 years with a group of 20 participants, that is a whole class. The students have an Art lesson weekly, so they are familiar with Art, Art history, Art periods, styles and with some other artists that we refer to during different Art lessons.
The Learning Experience
Link to Art History (15 minutes)
The students were introduced to different interpretations of the portrait throughout the history of Art. Then the students were introduced to Pablo Picasso using a short YouTube video clip about his life and remarkable cubist portrait art works found online and others from Europeana. A visual presentation was another resource used in the introduction of this lesson.
Observing the Basic Elements of Art (15 minutes)
The students were encouraged to have a closer look and observe in more detail some cubist portrait art works executed by this artist and notice the main basic elements of art Pablo Picasso made use of. This helped them as they had to create a cubist portrait themselves and use the same elements.
Students observing some works by Pablo Picasso and the basic elements of art.
Students observing some works by Pablo Picasso and the basic elements of art.
Creating a cubist portrait (15 minutes)
The students were allowed to use their LearnPads and look for more artworks by this artist. This allowed the students to be inspired and get different ideas from different sources of inspiration. They were also shown a step-by-step template as a starting point.
Students’ starting point by following some basic steps to draw a cubist portrait.
Work in Progress (30 minutes)
Their task was to draw a distorted self-portrait in the cubist style.
Students sketching their cubist portrait artwork.
Students sketching their cubist portrait artwork.
Final art works
Some of the students’ end results.
Discussion and Peer Assessment (15 minutes)
The students were invited to discuss their work with their peers, and they were given feedback from the teacher.
The main Learning outcomes and what helped in achieving them.
- Students observed and discussed the works by Pablo Picasso with the help of a YouTube video clip and Europeana visual images and a visual presentation which could be found in the ‘Additional Educational Material’ hyperlink above.
- Students discovered some aspects of his art works and the basic elements of art that he used.
- Students researched some information about the artist and his artistic style by using their LearnPads, Google, YouTube and Europeana platform.
- Students understood that they have to create a cubist portrait with the help of the images they have been exposed to and that they browsed on the Web.
- Students expressed them self creatively through the artwork they have done.
- Students peer assessed the art works of each other with their teacher. The comments and criticism both positive and the ways how an art could have been improved were essential.
I would give advice to other educators to give more time to the students and let their explore and browse through the Europeana platform about the artist and his works. This would give them the opportunity to create different artworks inspired from the style of this artist.
My Europeana Learning Experience
As an educator who is aware of the Teaching with Europeana resources and who also have several learning published learning scenarios and story of implementations of other learning scenarios, I can say this is an essential resource for all the teachers as one can find may learning scenarios gathered all in one place. Both Europeana and Teaching with Europeana are helpful tools where one can find various relevant resources which one can make use of and adapt according to ones need. Art and science are two fun subjects, and one would easily find appropriate resources by using the general search engine or the subject sorting and search engine. Europeana resources facilitate the work of the teachers.
Did you find this story of implementation interesting? Why don’t you read about the related learning scenario? Colouristic Contrast with Pablo Picasso (EN-CUR-491) created by Ksenija Lekić
Did you find this story of implementation interesting? You might also like:
- AR Portraits (EN-CUR-366) implemented by M. Isabel Blanco Pumar
- Selfies of the Past (LS-MT-96) implemented by Mark Busuttil
- You’ve got food on your face! (EN-CUR-644) implemented by Maria Papadaki
Do you want to discover more stories of implementation? Click here.
CC BY 4.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino.